Dominion
Over the years, I’ve been very hard on quite a few pastors.
I see no reason to stop. My children and grandchildren will have to live in the world they don’t care about, the world they claim—with so much ill considered theology—to have left behind for their citizenship in heaven.
To be short, blunt, and brutal about it: if you don’t care about this garden called Earth, you don’t care about Jesus. You may not even know Jesus. If you don’t care about calling leaders to repentance, you spit on John the Baptist. If you don’t care about leaders who refuse to punish the wicked, you spit on the apostle Paul. If you think politics don’t belong in church, you spit on the Lord’s Prayer. If you write insulting books with straw man titles like “Why Government Can’t Save You,” you might as well be spitting on the believing Centurion or the Good Samaritan.
None of us have the luxury of cherishing the words “my kingdom is not of this world” and simultaneously reviling the words “all power in heaven and on earth is given unto me,” and the even more startling words, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Our theology must take all of scripture into account or we should end the pretense of teaching it.
For most of history, the history we measure with the term “Anno Domini” (the Year of Our Lord), Christianity saw itself as taking dominion over the world, and the sphere of that influence was defined by the term “Christendom.” (“Dom: a suffix forming nouns which refer to domain, (kingdom)“) We are talking here, very specifically, about the earthly “Kingdom of Christ.” The faith has been carried forward over the centuries by true believers who did not blush at the notion that God’s will should be observed on earth, as it is in heaven. The civil order would not be administered by theocrats, but by men who knew God’s will as being revealed by scripture and the church. These were beer drinking, wife-loving, poetry-writing soldiers for Christ—the guys who knew a Jesus who fed the flesh of defiant kings to the birds of the air. The victory, in other words, had already been won. The Lord of Hosts soldiers were keeping the King’s peace, not pining away for the next prophecy conference.
Enter dispensationalism and the quiet Jesus who seems to be waiting for the Devil to do his dirty work, so that he can come back and reign for a thousand years. Enter hyper-pietism and the notion that Christians cannot serve in the military or in politics. Enter “taste not, touch not” false piety and endless debates about female modesty and even silly lamentations over billiards, beer, and mixed martial arts.
No thanks, pastors. That’s not my brand of Christianity, because it isn’t Christ’s brand. He claimed to be the most high King of the Universe in Matthew 28, and I believe Him. He told us to sell our cloaks and buy swords, so I believe Him. He told us there was a time for war and a time for peace, so I believe Him. He turned the water into wine, so I’m drinking it.
In short, if you are pining away for a kingdom in the sky, and a reward in the afterlife, you are likely the sort of believer who will be both a bore here and bore there. The fact is that life is messy, depressing, argumentative, and sometimes celebratory. God wanted you to get at that life, and to have that life “more abundantly.”
Yes, when men of God opine about politics it gets messy. When heretical cults set up compounds, invade personal finance, and establish cruel, theocratic control mechanisms, they can go spectacularly awry, and they can give “dominionism” a bad name, but we can’t define ourselves by others’ failures. Just because Bill Gothard, Bethel Redding, and Doug Phillips got it wrong, doesn’t mean we have to.
If you don’t believe Jesus has something to say about music, dance, beer, poetry, sex, girls and government, you have a boring, incomplete gospel going for you.
And, yes, I have absolutely no time for it.
Well, that hits home. It’s how I was.raised. Mother would have chastised me intensely for speaking out….
She would have chastised you for speaking out on a political issue or being hard on pastors?
My mom was dog democrat. The democrats knew.what was best and there was no need to discuss it. Pastors were speaking God’s word and to question them would surely send you to hell.
I think you can be hard on pastors, however, after years of listening to MacArthur I will place his opinions a lot higher than yours. Having said that, I think the problem with the beer crowd is excess focus on the act. Who really cares if you are drinking beer, wine, or tea? But suddenly, it’s hey come over we are going to drink and study the Bible too. No one places this much focus on the clothes they wear but when it comes to drinks suddenly another story. As in the PCA stands for Pipes, Cigars, and Alcohol…. Furthermore, I think laying this at the feet of Dispensationalism is disingenuous. Plenty of lazy Reformers out there just waiting for things to get better because Jesus has already returned… thank you Preterists! And as a 2nd degree Black Belt I sometimes wonder if it were better to have just trusted Jesus to defend me instead of spending time and money in that pursuit, except that I can at least say it was healthy and Paul extolled boxing… maybe. Long and short is your christian liberty ends when used as an excuse which ends up harming the very ones we should be winning.
Re: “But suddenly, it’s hey come over we are going to drink and study the Bible too…”
Most believers would be a lot more interesting, and generous, if they had a glass of wine. The reality here is that it’s entirely unnatural for celebrations, including religious occasions, to be convened without refreshment. The Green punch Baptist standard is a holdover from the temperance era and it isn’t Biblical, given John 2, 1 Timothy 5, Psalm 104.
Re: “Plenty of lazy reformers out there..” Indeed, but they are lazy against their theology and not because of their theology. I know pro-life protesters who were greeted by pre-mils stating, “you guys are just delaying the rapture by trying to reform society. It’s GOT to get worse, brother.”
Re: MacArthur turning up his nose at mixed martial arts. As usual, he has a problem with Christian liberty.
I do agree that its a cultural thing and it really shouldn’t be a big deal, however culture is powerful and I don’t think there will be many kegs in any Baptist fellowship halls in the near future. There is just a stigma associated with it.
And it is beyond ridiculous that anyone thinks they can control God’s timing for the Rapture by allowing things to get worse when in fact we are salt and light and should make things as good as possible.
I do think MacArthur has a great track record and is pretty well balanced. Would it be better to err on the side of restricting liberty? Probably. I think the Lord will reward the believer who “sacrifices” his liberty as long as its right reason. To fall on one’s metaphorical sword and say we can’t have a glass of wine because we are Christian is pretty lame.
Kirby Anderson I believe addressed the whole MMA thing. It is not an evil, just a choice. The funny thing is just how many Christians are into MMA. My studio is run by solid believers. It’s kind of weird actually. But there is a lot of respect for the other guy although some of the MMA folks take it to extreme. Crazy world we live in. Nice chatting with you!
Curbing liberty, beyond scripture, is precisely why so many people get fatigued with fellowship and why they have trouble trusting grace. They see Jesus drinking (and making) the wine, and they see folks like stern faced John MacArthur scolding them for it. There’s enough sin to preach against out there without making up a new false holiness standard.